Shanxi fans are watching CBA game.
TAIYUAN, June 20 (Xinhua) -- At 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, with the opening whistle in the Qingdao Sports Center, the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league saw the the first game of the resumed season tip off. Tens of thousands of basketball fans from all over China tuned in online.
At the center of the storm are CBA teams and players. "With the COVID-19 pandemic bringing Chinese basketball to a long standstill, we have experienced an unprecedented off-season of more than 3 months," said Wang Fei, head coach of Shanxi Loongs. "In fact, the team resumed training about 2 months ago. We've been waiting for the restart and now, finally, it's here."
Qingdao in east China's Shandong province and the southern city of Dongguan in Guangdong province have been selected as hosts for the upcoming matches that will be played behind closed doors.
The fact that the game was played without spectators in the arena and was subject to strict epidemic prevention control, did not reduce players' enthusiasm for the restart. "In any case, it is the best result for me to get back on my beloved court. I can't wait," said Ge Zhaobao, center for the Shanxi Loongs, before the match between Shanxi and Guangdong.
Li Fei, a passionate Shanxi Loongs supporter, waited in front of the TV, took out beer and snacks, and, together with his 9-year-old son, put on the home team's jersey before the match between Shanxi and Guangdong on Saturday afternoon.
Although Shanxi lost the match in the end, he was still as happy as if they'd won. "It is a blessing for the fans to watch the home team play and cheer for good basketball again," he said.
Also on Saturday, the CBA held five other matches, each of which attracted more than 1 million on-line spectators, with the biggest reaching 2 million. Many fans used a mobile app called "Migu video" to project their images onto the big screen in the stadium, acting as a "5G cloud of spectators".
On the day, the words "CBA rematch" was the most frequently searched on Weibo, Hupu, Douyin and other Chinese websites and social media platforms.
In the Tencent CBA network broadcast room, the host took out a variety of basketball-related products to sell at timeouts. On June 19, Tencent Sports Mall launched a wide variety of jerseys including Beijing Ducks star Jeremy Lin's as well as his teammates, which proved to be very popular with fans.
Basketball fever has gone from online to offline. Despite not being able to attend games, many fans still met with friends and family members to watch the games and spend the weekend together.
On Saturday afternoon, basketball fans from the Shanxi Naota Fans Club were sitting separately at tables to watch a CBA match in a restaurant in the city of Taiyuan. They cheered on the match between their home team Shanxi Loongs and Guangdong Southern Tigers. "We have not been together for a long time to chat and watch games. We feel very happy and are ready to play basketball together later," said a fan named Ren Yufeng.
"The return of CBA will be a multi-win 'game'," said Hu Jun, owner of the restaurant. Hu added that because of the match, more people came to eat today than usual, which may be the beginning of a further recovery in the food and beverage industry.
"As the first large-scale national sports event to be restarted in China, the return of CBA has far-reaching significance for comprehensively promoting work resumption and restoring order to life. Its social impact has gone beyond basketball itself," CBA president Yao Ming said in a public statement.
"I sincerely hope that with the excellent performance of each player participating in the game, we can establish a positive and healthy image of each team, transmit the positive energy of the CBA league, and interpret the true sports spirit to our family, friends and all of society through basketball." ■